Hillary Millennial Support at Risk Over Clumsy Move by Lakewood Democratic Club

The Lakewood Democratic Club has risked efforts encouraging Bernie Sanders supporters to show up at the polls for Hillary Clinton this November, by throwing out Sanders’s key regional operative.

At the heart of the erroneous dismissal is the controversial ordinance that closed Lakewood Hospital.

Party insiders are attempting to eliminate members who oppose the hospital’s closing, as club members gather at tonight’s meeting to decide whether or not to endorse Issue 64. A vote against Issue 64 is a vote against the ordinance that closed the hospital.

Tristan Rader—a lifelong Democrat, a leader of the Sanders primary campaign in Northeast Ohio, and currently Operations Director of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus—received today via FedEx a notice that he would be unable to participate in a vote at tonight’s Lakewood Democratic Club meeting.

Rader and others have received last minute notices of dismissal.

“There is nothing in the Club’s bylaws that provide for this kind of dismissal. Tristan has done nothing wrong,” said Tom Monahan of the Save Lakewood Hospital Committee, another lifelong Democrat. “All of the claims of misconduct are fabrication. This is a desperate attempt by party insiders to bend rules to favor special interests. It is EXACTLY what Bernie Sanders was campaigning against.”

In the ever so close race for President, Ohio is key. And in this, the most densely populated Democratic city between New York and Chicago, a severe rift in the party could make a difference. As millennial voters catch wind of this dismissal, the tentative feelings they have about candidates like Hillary Clinton will surely cause many of them to stay home on November 8th.

A large protest and rally is planned for 6:45 tonight in Lakewood Park in front of the Women’s Pavilion, where tonight’s Lakewood Democratic Club meeting is scheduled.